We may never pass this way again
Getting a bit of thunderstorm in Livermore tonight, around eight o'clock. Mostly it was just a bit of lightning, but it spit some rain as well. I stood out in the front, under the eaves with the porch light off, watching it. It's been awhile since I smelled the leaf mold and ozone and the smell of wet things. It didn't last very long but it has been awhile since the last thunderstorm and it was nice.
I came back in and started surfing around on the weather page to see how things were around the state. It appears that the storm was pretty local, although several cities in the valley and the Bay Area are showing chances of storms and precipitation this weekend. It looks like Fall is contemplating an appearance soon.
There's an advertisement on the weather page. It has a picture of a pretty blond woman in a dress with a white flower-print skirt and a gray top. I love that female penchant for ornamentation. It's often fascinating. Some women are so artful as to seem almost different women from day to day. Women are fun to watch, how they dress and ornament themselves, how they move when they work or play, how expressions cross their faces, each person unique. It never gets old. I guess the habit of men to notice such things is what keeps the human race from going extinct. There's that pull again.
To complete the sentiment expressed in the current mood field for this entry, I am feeling relaxed, but full of various displeasures and anxieties this evening. This month has been...interesting, and not in the good way. At least that is the case for plenty of people around me. A friend of mine and her spouse ran into some financial difficulties and lost her apartment. She's got no place to go. I helped her get some of their stuff into storage. She's stressed out of her gourd and I don't know what to tell her. Her entire life has gotten pretty problematical this past couple of months. I keep trying to help her but things beyond her control, her spouse's, or mine keep happening and things just keep getting worse. It's dispiriting and frustrating.
Shockingly enough, at the end of last month, I found out that my ex-wife is in the same general sort of fix, although she and her family have a softer landing than the one my friend is facing. Last month, the ex, her spouse, their two boys, and Shannon went to Michigan for two weeks to visit her spouse's family. Shortly before the end of the visit, Crystal called Jackie, who had remained behind with Xander in Sacramento, and announced that they were in worse financial shape than they had thought and that they couldn't afford to stay in California and that Chris' family had offered them their summer home on Lake Michigan for a place to live.
I knew they were having difficulties and that they had been encouraged to move to Michigan, but I didn't think it would be so soon and this sudden. They're going to store and have friends ship some of their belongings to them as they become able to afford the shipping. Other stuff they are going to sell and give away. By the end of the last weekend of this month they're planning to be in their van and headed across country to Michigan.
Fortunately, Jackie and Shannon are staying in California with me, albeit Sacramento. We've all been scrambling to make sure that the two of them have a good place to land for the near future. Jackie has arranged a deal with some group that assists single parents attending school with living accommodations and child care. She's not officially moving in yet, although she's next on their waiting list and they think she will probably be able to move in by the end of the month. Shannon has arranged to stay with the family of one of her classmates up in Sacramento until she finishes high school. I've been helping both of them out as best I can. I've hauled some of their things to my house so we can store it for them. In a week or two, I'm going to rent a U-Haul truck Shannon may be moving in down here after she graduates and has been looking at schools in the Livermore and Bay area. I have adopted their cat, Kuu, and we're getting along pretty good. It's kind of fun to have a pet again. It's been years.
Coincidentally, Crystal will be leaving California a little more than eight years to the day after she left our home in Lodi. It is, I suppose, the close of another chapter in my life. It feels like it. Just after I got used to her first departure eight years ago, I never would have believed that I would be missing her had she the future need to leave California. I wasn't expecting to have a lot of contact with her, to remain such friends with her, at the time. So much for all of the good things that follow from remaining friends with your ex spouse. Now I get to miss her again. I suppose the pain is not as sharp this time as it was the last time but it still is not something I find pleasant to experience. It's hard, but there is no choice other than to accept and deal with it. I feel sorry for her being separated from our girls. I know that she will miss them. It makes me reflect with some small twinges of regret the move she and I made out here from Ohio in 1996 that put so many miles between ourselves and our respective families.
I came back in and started surfing around on the weather page to see how things were around the state. It appears that the storm was pretty local, although several cities in the valley and the Bay Area are showing chances of storms and precipitation this weekend. It looks like Fall is contemplating an appearance soon.
There's an advertisement on the weather page. It has a picture of a pretty blond woman in a dress with a white flower-print skirt and a gray top. I love that female penchant for ornamentation. It's often fascinating. Some women are so artful as to seem almost different women from day to day. Women are fun to watch, how they dress and ornament themselves, how they move when they work or play, how expressions cross their faces, each person unique. It never gets old. I guess the habit of men to notice such things is what keeps the human race from going extinct. There's that pull again.
To complete the sentiment expressed in the current mood field for this entry, I am feeling relaxed, but full of various displeasures and anxieties this evening. This month has been...interesting, and not in the good way. At least that is the case for plenty of people around me. A friend of mine and her spouse ran into some financial difficulties and lost her apartment. She's got no place to go. I helped her get some of their stuff into storage. She's stressed out of her gourd and I don't know what to tell her. Her entire life has gotten pretty problematical this past couple of months. I keep trying to help her but things beyond her control, her spouse's, or mine keep happening and things just keep getting worse. It's dispiriting and frustrating.
Shockingly enough, at the end of last month, I found out that my ex-wife is in the same general sort of fix, although she and her family have a softer landing than the one my friend is facing. Last month, the ex, her spouse, their two boys, and Shannon went to Michigan for two weeks to visit her spouse's family. Shortly before the end of the visit, Crystal called Jackie, who had remained behind with Xander in Sacramento, and announced that they were in worse financial shape than they had thought and that they couldn't afford to stay in California and that Chris' family had offered them their summer home on Lake Michigan for a place to live.
I knew they were having difficulties and that they had been encouraged to move to Michigan, but I didn't think it would be so soon and this sudden. They're going to store and have friends ship some of their belongings to them as they become able to afford the shipping. Other stuff they are going to sell and give away. By the end of the last weekend of this month they're planning to be in their van and headed across country to Michigan.
Fortunately, Jackie and Shannon are staying in California with me, albeit Sacramento. We've all been scrambling to make sure that the two of them have a good place to land for the near future. Jackie has arranged a deal with some group that assists single parents attending school with living accommodations and child care. She's not officially moving in yet, although she's next on their waiting list and they think she will probably be able to move in by the end of the month. Shannon has arranged to stay with the family of one of her classmates up in Sacramento until she finishes high school. I've been helping both of them out as best I can. I've hauled some of their things to my house so we can store it for them. In a week or two, I'm going to rent a U-Haul truck Shannon may be moving in down here after she graduates and has been looking at schools in the Livermore and Bay area. I have adopted their cat, Kuu, and we're getting along pretty good. It's kind of fun to have a pet again. It's been years.
Coincidentally, Crystal will be leaving California a little more than eight years to the day after she left our home in Lodi. It is, I suppose, the close of another chapter in my life. It feels like it. Just after I got used to her first departure eight years ago, I never would have believed that I would be missing her had she the future need to leave California. I wasn't expecting to have a lot of contact with her, to remain such friends with her, at the time. So much for all of the good things that follow from remaining friends with your ex spouse. Now I get to miss her again. I suppose the pain is not as sharp this time as it was the last time but it still is not something I find pleasant to experience. It's hard, but there is no choice other than to accept and deal with it. I feel sorry for her being separated from our girls. I know that she will miss them. It makes me reflect with some small twinges of regret the move she and I made out here from Ohio in 1996 that put so many miles between ourselves and our respective families.